That's my sister on the right.

For me, that is. I'm giving C@thy the opportunity to visit the Coquitlam dump this afternoon. And then we are all off to see Transformers 2 at the nearby theatre.

Mom and C@thy arrived last night around 10 pm after driving all the livelong day. They brought with them 4 boxes of trinkets packed up by my Aunt from my Grandma and Grandpa's place. I am now the proud owner of a beautiful set of old fashioned champagne glasses that I'll use for desserts and photo shoots. There were also some old cookbooks and a cool fondue set.

It's so good to see them! We've got plenty of fun things planned. Let the games begin.





Airplane bokeh? Cool!

I took Catherine to the Vancouver Convention Centre (you know, that place with all the Debbie Downer plaques) because she hadn't been yet. There were tons of people around prepping for tomorrow's Canada Day celebration. I won't be going downtown tomorrow for that. I've got plans, man. My first day of holidays include yard work and a drive out to Richmond to find a nice basket for the front door. Someone told me about a good place on Number 6 road for flower baskets. I haven't seen any around our parts that really look nice. I'm not a fan of those red geraniums - they seem to be a common flower for hanging baskets in this area. I'm sure I'll find something suitable.

The countdown has begun for my mom and sister to arrive. They could arrive any time between tomorrow around midnight, or, Thursday around 6:00 or so - depending on the time they can leave Cowtown.

Lucky for me, that leaves plenty of time for vacuuming and weed whacking. PHEW!





He's a cute little guy.

Frankie was at the barbecue in Squamish yesterday. He's a friendly little guy - especially when you've got a steak or a burger nearby. He's very happy to be hanging out with you.

My sister called me at work today all excited about the pending road trip. They just may come out on Wednesday - a day early! C@thy and my mom will be driving out in my sister's new truck. She'll be bringing some stuff with her for my Aunt, and of course, for me. And guess what? We're going to take her and her truck to the local dump! I know! Not only am I the best sister ever, I'm the best tour guide ever. And the best hostess ever - come to our place and get to work. We really like to entertain.

I have no idea if Burnaby has a dump, but if it does, we'll find it. If not, we'll go over to the North Shore. Or Coquitlam. We'll do the dump tour of the Lower Mainland. It will be totally great.

One more sleep...





Doh! I love those red sheds!

Today was a perfect day for a road trip. We headed up on the newly expanded Sea-to-Sky Highway - which seems to be about 3/4 of the way finished, but already the locals have found a difference in the commute time down to Vancouver. It takes about 45 minutes to get downtown now, as opposed to the hour and five minutes of the old highway.

Mike and I were invited to our friend's house for a barbeque. I've got more photos from the day if you hit "read more".

Please note: due to the size of the photos, I can only do 1 photo per post or else it will take forever to load my website. But if you click to the extended part, I can post more there. Did that just make sense? I sure hope so.

» Read More





What should I do with this funky balcony?

I cleaned off the balcony today, but the truth of the matter is, we just don't use it. Even though I had a big container garden out there last year, I only went out there to cook up some meat on the bbq or pick a couple of peppers off the plants. That's about it. It's a waste of a potentially fun space. We could hang out there, but we don't. I'm not sure why. Even with the table and umbrella up, it's not an inviting place just yet. I am going to come up with some way to to either spruce it up or make it a more attractive place to hang out. I think I'll do some research on ways to make it a bit more usable. Mmmm...trellises and potted trees. I think I'll have some ideas trickling in soon.





The profile of the mini-panther

My friend, Vera, called Oscar the Mini Panther today. So I can't take credit for the totally bad a$$ name he's earned. He's a tough guy. RAWWR!

This is all I can muster today. Phew! I am tuckered out. It's been a long week and I'm so close to my vacation I can practically taste it. Only two more work days and it's holidaze for me. I was so excited today I practically got all caught up with all my paperwork and emails at the office. Nearly caught up!

So I'm going to carefully move this tiny panther off my side of the bed and have a good sleep. This weekend is looking eventful. Tomorrow I'll do some clean up and guest room set up, but Sunday we are going to a barbecue in Squamish, so I'll have the opportunity to take some photos of some nice scenery, if I'm lucky.





Jenette in Coal Harbour!

I was very grateful today to have this photo shoot scheduled. I have so much fun doing them and I find it all very relaxing. JayBee and I went to Coal Harbour for these photos - one of my favourite places to take pictures in the city. I love the big glass buildings -they make a beautiful background. There's a bit everything around there - the ocean, grassy spots with and without trees, and, of course, the buildings.

After our gruelling photo session, we went out for a fancy sushi lunch. With glass bottles of Diet Coke. I'm telling you, they do it right in Coal Harbour.





It's 6 months and counting!

Where did I get this beautiful ceramic white Christmas tree, you ask? Yet another awesome find on my thrifting excursion with Cynthia and Denise last weekend. See? It really was the best shopping day ever.

I don't know much about this tree except that it's ceramic, is lit with a 40 watt light bulb and the has the initials MS carved into the ceramic. It's also dated - 1978. I HEART my smart Disco tree.

I set up the tree quietly this past Sunday in the dining room, plugged it in and waited for Mike to notice. His response? "Oh My God!" short pause...then, "Hey, are you going to keep that out all year? It is kind of strange. We could find a spot for it." See, secretly, Mike loves Christmas, too. Even in June.

PLEASE NOTE: I was dying to post the picture of my new tree on Saturday, but Denise had the suggestion to wait until the 25th. She's a genius. Thanks Denise! And thanks to Cynthia, too. As I admired the tree in the store, she casually pointed out the tree was calling my name. Of course it was!





Here are those old school jelly jars I thrifted on the weekend. I absolutely love them. I put them in the fridge to take their photos because after the clown head photo yesterday, I realized that the light is great in there and the background is white - what an excellent combination for photos! Especially at night.
Jelly Jars. Made in Canada.

Unfortunately, the ladies that ran the thrift store did not really appreciate my enthusiasm one bit. I was all swoony over the jars (I bought about 2 dozen) and when I brought them up to the front to collect later, the old granny running the place did NOT agree with my statement about the jars being the best jars ever. I got an eye roll and a very tight lipped, "I hope you're not going to take too long to come back to pay for these jars. We ARE very busy today." I assured her I'd be right back, but then I found the Christmas section and then we found the 70's crochet books and then it was game over. We were the rowdiest customers in the place - pointing and laughing at the dough book section. Yup. They had a whole shelf of books dedicated to dough crafts. My beautiful jars were waiting for me half an hour later despite the busy-ness of the store. Mike calls them the Nanny Jars. His grandma used to make jams and preserves in jars like this back in the day.

It's hard to see, but I the lids are glass and they say "Made in Canada" on them. The top piece of glass will be sealed to the jar with one of those red seals. I will have to buy some of those seals to make the jars vacuum-tight. I'm sure I can find them at the Army and Navy. Now I have to find ways to fill them up. I'll go to some farmers markets for ideas and of course, when Mom and C@thy get here, we'll fill up tons. And I think this time we'll visit Krause Berry Farms. It looks like the berries are ripe and ready to go.

I can HARDLY wait. And I'm getting so much work done at the office. I find vacation a motivator to get my inbox cleaned up at work.





What the???

Imagine my surprise when I found THIS in the fridge today after work. Quite a mystery how it got in there. I mean it. I really wonder how Oscar got it in there. Creepy.

This was another treasure I found on my thrifting adventure with Cynthia and Denise last weekend. I bought 3 for 75 cents. I can barely contain my excitement for a certain big ticket item that I will be posting later on this week. And I still have to show my beautiful old fashioned jelly jars. Mmm...they are so COOL and made in Canada. I'll take their picture tomorrow. You won't be disappointed.

And can I tell you something else I'm excited about? A show on the CBC set to air in October. It's called BATTLE OF THE BLADES. It's some kind of figure skating competition with retired NHL hockey players. And who are the hockey players, you ask? Well there's Bob Probert, Tie Domi and...wait for it...wait for it...LANNY MCDONALD!!! Can you believe it? How great is this show going to be? I'm setting our PVR right now! They have the countdown clock on the website and I'm following the show on Twitter.

You guys! Lanny McDonald! W00T! I hope they're not kidding with us, because seeing Lanny McDonald figure skating in tights with that moustache is going to be the. Best. Day. Ever.

[Thanks to SueNJ97 for posting this awesome info over on my favourite hockey blog - Interchangeable Parts.]





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